COULD ROOSEVELT HAVE ENDED WORLD WAR II EARLIER?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301920018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: April 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27 :CIA-RDP90-009658000301920018-1
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Amid the saturation of World
War 11 40th anniversary milestone
stories and recollections. reference will
probably not he made elsewhere to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's failure to
foster a German anti-Hitler plot. The
President totally shunned a prime
possibility of ending hostilities in the
West, thereby sharply abbreviating that
tragic conflict to the world's great
advantage.
Pre-Pearl Harbor America was vehe-
mently divided over FDR's campaign
to get the U.S. into that war. But once
we were in, for better or worse, the
President of the United States had a
paramount obligation: winning it in
our long-range interests as quickly and
mercifully as ; ossible. Few realize the
virtual Godsend Roosevelt spurned in
this respect, without the barest explor-
atory consideration.
Distinction Between People
And Anti-Nazi Leaders
Throughout 40 years of the Cold
War, anti-Communists have always
made a distinction between the peoples
of Russia and their Kremlin masters;
the peoples of the Captive Nations and
the Red puppet regimes controlling
them. But Roosevelt, particularly after
the blackening of the Axis military-
strategic situation as _ 1943. dawned,
never attempted to shorten the war by
separating the German people and the
impressive host of anti-Nazi and non-
Nazi Wehrmacht leaders from the
Hitler regime.
That isn't to say both the civilian and
military centers of non-Nazi influence
weren't, by early 1943, beginning to
fully reap what they had sown. The
professional officer corps had sworn
personal allegiance to:the Fuhrer rather
than to their nation in exchange for
Hitler's promise (soon after becoming
chancellor) to bring Germany up to
military par with its powerful neigh- Thing tor the Russians'
born. And the great majority of the
German people (granting their tremen- FDR's son Elliott, 'present at Casa-
dous emotional indebtedness to him for blanca, quoted his father as saving:
bringing their sadistically tortured "Of course, it's just the thing for the
country out of bondage) sheepishly fol- Russians. 'Unconditional surrender.'
lowed an obvious disaster in the mak- Uncle Joe might have made it up him-
ing. self." Longtime New York Times cor-
By early 1943 even Josef Goebbels' respondent and military analyst Drew
..._
Propaganda ministrations couldn't Middleton wrote in Retreat from Vic-
mask t e oncoming enormity of the tory that Churchill told him years later:
Stalin rg ad encirclement. Had the U.S. "I was startled by the announcement. I
and British governments been so tried to hide my surprise. But I was his
disposed, this period presented the first ardent lieutenant."
major time-frame where an approach Middleton wrote: "The President's
to anti-Hitlerites in Germany could apologists have argued that the state-
have been initiated In Through the ment was necessary to convince the
Looking Glass, a recountin of British Russians of the good faith of the.
lnte ieence activities by a former top American and British governments and.,
M16 operative, this crucial point was their determination to continue the. war;
maae: The Bnush intelheence services against Hitler=.to:- complete-?vic
considered Stalingrad as the start of the tory. -.had not the Americans and the
Cold War, when Soviet expansion aims British proved their' good faith and
should have been a priority .consider-
ation of Western Allied planning. In-
stead. meeting with Winston Churchill
at Casablanca, FDR helped slam the
door on this option.
The January 1943 Casablanca con-
ference was held some two months after
the American invasion of North Africa
and it dealt largely with the upcoming
Sicily-Italy campaign. At a press con-
ference toward its end, Roosevelt stated
that the allies would accept only the
"unconditional surrender" of the Axis
powers. Whether the President made
this statement for dramatic effect
without any reflection, or whether it
was calculated in cahoots with some of
his leftist advisers, history may never
know.
Of it, premium New Deal diplomat,
and then-former Ambassador to
Moscow Charles P. "Chip" Bohlen
wrote: "Responsibility for this uncon-
ditional surrender. doctrine rests almost,
exclusively with President Roosevelt.
He announced it... ostensibly because
determination at Guadalcanal and Ala-
mein?"
interestingly, the "show of, good
faith" toward Stalin rationalization
was also used to justify the February
1945 massive bombing of Dresden.
And what more "good faith" did the
wily Stalin need than the knowledge
that FDR and his friends were calling
the wartime shots? He certainly knew
Robert A. Taft wasn't in the White
House with Burton K. Wheeler as his
secretary of state.
Indeed, there was another way,
with exceptional chance of suc-
cess, of getting rid of Hitler and his
slimy cohorts while ending the war
in the West .well before D-Day.
One of the most remarkable stories
of tragic unfulfillment to come out
of World War II was published in
HUMAN EVENTS in 1960.* Readers
requested a record number of re-
prints, but it is virtually unknown
..
to all . but the most history.:..
conscious Americans.
= ==
there was nothing that he and Churchill
had to tell the press of any particular in- -'Roosevelt's Fatal Error.- by George 14
terest. According to Churchill, he was' Earle. HUMAN EVENTS, March 24, 1960
surprised at the announcement."
Qudinued
By GEORGE FOWLER
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Shortly before Christmas 1959, this That month Earle's phone rang and
reporter traveled from Washington's Suggestion Made he heard Canaris' voice: "I'm the gen-
Union Station to the wealthy Phila- to Approach Earle tleman who called on you unannounced
delphia suburb of Radnor to meet with two months ago. Has there been any
former Pennsylvania Gov. George H. Leverkuehn suggested that Baron pro>g*ess regarai the matte: we cis
Earle. In early January 1943, just Kurt von Lernser, who headed a Ger- cussedss Earle thought of his urgent
before leaving -for Casablanca, man cultural group in Turkey, alp- message to FDR, then replied, "loo,
Roosevelt appointed Earle U.S. naval proach Earle. Lernsner had headed the no progress."
attache at Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul, German delegation during the Ver-
operating grounds of the fabled World sailies Peace Conference after World Subseouentl\ Earle arranged to meet
War II spy "Cicero," was one of the war I, but had been given an inconse- with von Lernsner at a spot five miles
major neutral cities where the flags of quential wartime post due to a fraction outside Istanbul. Von Lernsner capped
the opposing powers flew on the same of Jewish blood. After an initial posi- a three-hour meeting by posing the
blocks. International intrigue and tive meeting. Larie agreed to meet wnn question: ceeded in of the r anti-Nazi leadrersasuc-
wheeling dealing were rampant. Canaris.
A few davs later a short, middle-aged Hitler and his top functionaries, could
man in c ilian clothes showed up an honorable surrender be arranged? It
Time to Begin Nazi at
Overthrow Negotiations Earle's hotel room. The former go~?er- would be with the understanding that a
nor and the Geran intelligence chief provisional democratic government be
Prior to Casablanca, highest-ranking m set up in Berlin and military coopera-
talked and Canaris expressed his deems set with the western allies be arranged
sid red tote the p poosst-N -N oportheratiAmeves a con- concern over Roosevelt's recent uncon
sidererican inva- ditional surrender declaration. He said in order to keep the Soviet armies out of
sion period an excellent time to bed it would lay into Soviet hands and Europe.
Nazi-overthrow ne otiations with Ger- boded ill for all the V extern nations. Earle again made coded contact with
man intelligence chic Wt helm Canaris ointed out that the statement the white House, pleading with
Canans whose true svmpat hies were left the highly placed anti Nazi move Roosevelt to look into what these anti-
known to them. meat in Germane virtualh no bargain Nazis had to offer. He wrote that "as-
Head British spy Gen. Stewart Men- ing power. He said it meant war to the the weeks passed (with no reply to this
zies submitted the proposal to the Sitter end, with the Soviet Union second appeal} the Red Army con-
Foreign Office. where it was prompth~ emerging as the dominating in luence
on its the way tools westward, wd
turned down, "for fear of offending in Europe. tifmed eeding to itself rind
sia," as Menzies commented after Roosevelt's Lend Lease program pro-
the w?ar. Subsequently. S1S Chief of Air Canaris, Earle Discuss vided. I continually pressed the matter
lute hgence and Menzies confidante Surrender Terms with hopeless communiques, until I
Frederick W1interbotham wrote: George Earle agreed with the Ger- sensed the real snag; von Lernsner and
. but why we should fall over man trite igence cute tat s his anti-Nazi countrymen had taken an
backwards to appease those who wer, policy contained disastrous absolute stand against Communist ex-
d to destroy our way of s-tatedp ansion, and this was disturbing to
and are, p leg
life I shall never understand." rate- implications Sensing Canaris had TDR - a man who had great faith in
cards to play, he asked what he had in
merits by then-Forei n Secretary An- mind. Canaris asked Earle whether he the integrity of Stalin. During the late
t ony den make it clear he neither thou ht Roosevelt really meant "un- spring and early summer of 1943 von
wanted nor had instructions to pursue a conditional" surrender. He said er- Lernsner kept after me, but still no
negotiated peace'based on a Hitler gang mane's generals, central to any anti- word of encouragement was heard from
Washington."
overthrow. And "ardent-lieutenant"
urc it may ave een lying or as Hitler move, could never swa ow suc
.
Haar Truman so often did) recalling a , policyWhat terms would they consider?" Piot Included Top
historic moments differently than they Earle asked. Military Leaders
actua lv occurred.
"Perhaps you will take the matter up
German summer 1943 von Lernsner
contact with Earle, referred with your President," Canaris--sug-. In summplan. In addition t
to in r ie a correspondent eiziz gested. "I am leaving Istanbul this - outlined late many tdp a specific itefand civilian leaderso
Hohne's biography Canaris as -an afternoon. I will return in 60 days. I plot was being readied that eaders included a
archconservative who yearned to end hope you will have something to tell as eing r rf, the Berlin chief of
the ill-starred conflict between the non- me." Canaris had been vague, but Count and Freiherr von Boeslager,
Communist powers," was set in motion Earle considered it an important feeler police aand F was prepared to Bur,
y Ca pt. au ever ue n. He headed from one of the-key-figures in the Ge*- round and take Hitler's Prussian
the German War Organization Subof- man government. Earle sent Roosevelt round and take Hitl 's E)st Prussian
i i Tstanbul and before the war ad a detailed dispatch in the next diplo- refs. In Berlin Gen. von Beck, oof
was
been an internationally known lawyer matic pouch to Washington, but re-' the highest-ranking army officers, one
who listed s v chte 'i Liam J. ceived no reply from the President. command and begin
the eastern command front once
Donovan among his ac uaintances. in In March 1943, an attempt on prepared ping t to o seize
act onovan. w o a been D 's Hitler's life failed on a return flight to moa wstrn ooase-oit had been arranged.
-"ar ent -lieutenant" in working for his headquarters from the Eastern U.S. entry into the war, had made anti- Front. An acid-timed pencil bomb hid-
Nazi German connections in Spain but den in a gift package of cognac froze
was ordered to break them off. when Hitler's pilot went to a:high alti- (continued
tude to avoid turbulence.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301920018-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301920018-1
Plotters held key positions in Paris and dent. All the Germans asked was walked to a all map across the room.
other strategic locations. Roosevelt's signature on a document And someone l map unwining-IN placed the
Canaris had sent Count von Moltke agreeing to their basic plan. To vy stand of the
from om a a Hitler. To h heaeavs top off the
to Istanbul in June, where Moltke con- guarantee that this all-important paper- brieftable, away e behind
tacted two OSS-connected professors. work got through, Earle sent it by both bad luck,, the conference site had ben
He suggested arrangements for a Ger- Army and Navy channels as well as the changed from a small bunker under
man General Staff officer to travel to regular State Department diplomatic repair ng d a mall wooden building. ndes
England to prepare arrangements with pouch. If Roosevelt agreed, Earle was
to be flown to Germany to initiate pre- factor minimized the concussion effect
the U.S. and British to open up the Ger when the device exploded.
man western front. liminary terms with Hitler's enemies.
In speaking with the OSS-academics, After many days passed Gov. Earle False Report That
Mot e echoed the necessity o retract- finally received a reply from the Presi-. Hitler Was Killed
11,1111 11 1 :11 ir, Z s asa anca sec arat~on. dent: "All such applications for a The tremendous blast killed four and . D11, This particular overture drew the per- negotiated peace should be referred to
sonal attention of OSS chief Donovan. the Supreme Allied Commander, wounded Hitler in one arm. An er-
Donovan of Leverkuenn to sign a General Eisenhower." Of this Earle roneous report was almost instantly
said: "Although phrased in diplomatic relayed to the Berlin plotters: Hitler is
paper (typed on o icia paper from the
terms, this. was an absolute brush-off.
German Embassy in Ankara) promrs- dead, proceed with the takeover.
-
ing on eha of the Hit er opposition Here was clear-cut indication that the Within a few hours Hitler was on the
that German commanders would offer President had no interest in a valid plan radio telling of the "treachery" of "a
and calling the and a failed criminal -
no opposition if the Western allies in- laid by desperate but honest men to end clique
vaded France. onovan s interest was the war and save countless lives." sign :from providence that he had been
so stron that he decided to try Hitler's onetime role model and sub- spared to fulfill his twisted mission.
Roosevelt again, but to no avai . sequent junior sidekick, Benito Musso- Nazi retribution was swift and in-.
lini, may have hit on the obstinance of
Spanish-British Liaison the Washington-London governments. credibly ugly. Some 7,000 military and
Important to Plotters Just before being deposed. in 1943 Il - civilian figures were rounded up and
The plotters attempted Allied con- Duce mused: "It's easy for [his inner 5,000 were executed. Von Stauf-
council] to talk of peace. If it were only fenberg's relatives throughout Ger-
is through several countries, such as me I'd' leave, even right away. But many were thrown in concentration
con t they understand that Churchill camps, where some died. Field Marshal
neutral Sweden. But they considered a ,
and Roosevelt don't want my depar- Erwin Rommel, the famed "Desert
highest-levels Spanish-British liaison
of high potential import. ture, but the suppression of Italy as a Fox" and an outer-rim participant, was
Canaris had been told by intermedi- ' Mediterranean power?" given his choice of suicide and a state
aries that Francisco Franco, whose ad- funeral (death attributed to war.
miration for Hitler had waned steadily wounds) or a court martial and very
since the Werhmacht's considerable Two Previous Attempts unhappy consequences for his wife and
assistance' during the Spanish Civil On Hitler Called Off son. Canaris, not a part of the final plot
War, would be most willing to help. Of course, the final desperate at- because he felt Hitler and Co. should be
Following World War II, Jose Maria tempt against Hitler's life was an 11th- imprisoned and subsequently tried by
Doussinague, director general of the hour snafu. In the summer of 1944 two the Allies, was hanged from a meat-
Spanish Foreign Office, wrote: "To us, attempts were called off (because the hook.
the war's solution had always meant an plotters wanted to get Himmler and Thus the aborted coup came a
acceptance of our view that the Na- Goering with the same bomb) and one, year or so later and in much more
tional Socialist regime should be over- was cancelled because the Fuhrer left a haphazard manner than would
thrown without, however, destroying meeting unexpectedly. have been the case had Western
only On July 20 at the Wolf's Lair, Count allied cooperation been forth-
broughtGermany. us And proof [the that this anti-was not had
von Stauffenberg (a highly decorated coming.
feasible - -
but comparatively simple. Russian front veteran who had lost an
The conspiratorial plot, un- arm and an eve) attended a Hitler . The Nazis proceeded to dig in for the
known to Hitler and ignored by conference with an English-made - awful nine and a half months to come..
Roosevelt, was boiling ever more delayed action bomb in his briefcase...They. = lifted-3-the; longtime ban on
rapidly. The only ingredient neces- Stauffenberg gave his report and, at - Political activity, in the armed forces
d every .general staff officer was to be
sary to virtually assure success was about 1 p.m. left the room, his brief- an
9 -'National Socialist-officer-leader.
case under a table near Hitler.
Western allied approval. And as -
both head coach and quarterback, .Aftei Stauffenberg departed Hitler.
it was clearly FDR's call to make.' left his position, near the. bomb and`
Again Earle appealed to the Presi--
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301920018-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301920018-1
46
The party also demanded the Nazi
salute rather than the conventional
military salute from all officers. And
the German people, with the dread
"unconditional surrender" hanging
over them, fought on.
In a March 1985 column the respec-
ted John Chamberlain noted that we've
never gotten the true story of the
Roosevelt circle's war aims in Europe:
why American and British armies were
held back from a dash to take Berlin
during the months following the at-
tempt on Hitler's life.
Chamberlain wrote that "What we
really need is an exposure of the agree-
ments made well before the end of
World War II which set specific limits
to the eastward sweep of the Eisen-
hower and Montgomery armies." Ac-
tually, it was the Patton and Mont-
gomery armies, Eisenhower being
Supreme Allied Commander, carrying
out the strategic design of FDR through
the President's political operator in
uniform, Chief of Staff George C.
Marshall.
Allied Forces Could
Have Taken Berlin
Drew Middleton wrote in Retreat
from Victory that both Patton and the
previously cautious Montgomery were
confident they could drive their armies
to and beyond Berlin, split the Reich
and end the war. He noted that in
subsequent years all of the many Ger-
man commanders and military experts
he had spoken with concurred that
either thrust would have succeeded.
Middleton concluded: "The advan-
tage to the Western allies of victory in
1944 rather than in 1945, as a result of a
successful offensive by Montgomery or
Patton, are obvious today. They- cer-
tainly were obvious to a great many
soliders and politicians, Americans as
well as British, in 1944. But not to
port and terrible logistical problems,
his own? He tried to rationalize it as
such in Crusade in Europe.
But almost certainly the call was
from the Roosevelt inner circle to Mar-
shall to Eisenhower. Ike ordered the
frustrated field commanders to slow
down and meet the advancing Soviets at
the Elbe River, in the heart of Ger-
many. But in a 1943 book by Roose-
velt's under secretary of state, Sumner
Welles - in effect secretary of state, as
Secretary Cordell Hull bitterly realized
- there is a map showing the intended
borders of postwar Germany. And
these 1943 drawn borders, largely along
the Elbe, became almost exactly the
East-West zones of occupation, and
subsequently the borders of East and
West Germany!
Allied-Not Russian-
Troops in Berlin
-As Middleton noted: "The war
[could] have ended with allied, not Rus-
sian, troops in Berlin and East Ger-
many.. Allied troops would have oc-
cupied Austria and Czechoslovakia.
The United States and Britain would
have entered the postwar period in a far
stronger bargaining position. Who
knows how far Russia would have gone
in suppressing democracy in Poland,
Hungary and Czechoslovakia had the
allies dominated all of Germany?"
And, had Roosevelt but cooperated
with George Earle and Canaris, we
might have been in an even better posi-
tion than Middleton visualized.
In a 1984 HUMAN EVENTS interview
with Sen. Barry Goldwater, that splen-
did and candid patriot said of our.
precarious . postwar situation:
"Roosevelt's unconditional surrender.
had a lot to do with creating this situ-
ation. That war went on two years more
than it should have, and the Soviet em-
pire emerged from.-it." And so, as
liberals and leftists complain aboul'the
Eisenhower." Thus another mystery.--tremendous- current; defense._respon-;
.-To what extent, if at all, 'was was Ike's -*--sibilities of this nation, let them ponder,
wretched strategy of a slow advance in any moments.of intellectual honesty-
along a broad front, against a depleted._ the degree to which. their crowd heaped
German army with virtually,no air sup-.,=,..it all upon use t =-:.-: ,__-^
.ltr Fowler. u.former HUMAK EiFN7s.eduo
he .?unrihuirci iv man v mujur publicuiions and is
the uuihur of This Land for Freedom Bled. a hi
--